How To Break A Bad Habit In 20 Seconds Or Less

By Jo Ilfeld
Recently I was driving my son to his weekend basketball practice (usually a wonderful father-son bonding activity) and I suddenly realized I headed completely in the wrong direction. Instead of heading to the fitness center, I was actually en-route to my daughter’s preschool, having completely missed the freeway exit I needed to get to basketball.
Whoops!
It struck me that this instance of driving on "auto-pilot" is the perfect metaphor for how many of us live our lives. We keep doing what we’ve always done because it’s what we know, what we feel comfortable doing, and to be honest, what we can do in our sleep — it takes a lot less energy to keep doing the familiar.
Does this make sense? Well in many ways — yes. We know the fastest way to the grocery store & to work. If we always pay our bills at our desk on the same day, we know we’ll have envelopes and checks handy and our bills will get paid on time. Some uber-organized entrepreneurs even find that having a fixed rotation of meals eliminates the "What’s for dinner?" headache that I personally face each night. In many ways establishing a few good habits can remove a lot of stress from our lives.
Unless it doesn’t.
The key is to recognize the routines and patterns that are working really well for you (date night, Marketing Mondays, laundry day) and come face up to the habits that are holding you back from achieving your goals. For instance, would you rather be reading at night but find it’s easier to turn on the TV? Would your life be a whole lot more manageable if you left work by 5:30 but find that you don’t start tackling your most important priorities before 5pm every night — making it impossible to leave before 6:30 at the earliest. Worse yet, (fess up here!) do you mean to check your email briefly around 8pm before enjoying your evening and find yourself bleary-eyed at computer screen still working as 11 pm rolls around?
We’ve all been there! The question most entrepreneurs grapple with is: how do I turn these "bad" habits around without being even more tired?
In his brilliant book, “The Happiness Advantage,” Sean Achor recommends applying the 20 second rule to any new habits you want to cultivate.
This means that you want to make the preferable choice more readily available (able to access it in 20 seconds or less). So if you want to read instead of watching TV, put your book or kindle by your TV watching spot. Then it will take only moments to pick it up instead of the remote control. If you have a "must-do" work task, put it right on your computer keyboard before lunch. That way when you return from lunch — it will be a whole lot easier to just plunge in and finish it before checking your email for the 10th time and letting the work-day drags on any further.

And for those of you who find yourself consistently glued to your computer screens all night? I recommend a few different solutions.
For starters: you can set a timer on or near your computer that rings after 10-20 minutes, hopefully disturbing your zombie computer stare and forcing you to reconsider your options for the night. Similarly, scheduling a 8:30 phone call with a friend or conversation with your spouse might force you to check for must-dos quickly and then move so you can keep your commitments to others.
And for you diehard night-owl workers, I know Mac and Windows Operating Systems have an automatic shut-down option in the system preferences. This control actually shuts down your computer at a certain time of night — hopefully forcing you to do more enjoyable night-time activities. Can you override it? Of course — but if you’re even considering it — that is your inner wisdom telling you enough is enough and you need to structure your nights differently.
So your turn -what one habit do you hang onto that isn’t serving you well and helping meet your goals? How can you make your desired “new habit” more easily accessible?
If none of my ideas struck your fancy, I challenge you to identify one no-longer-necessary groove you might have in your business that is no longer necessary as you business gets more successful. Then brainstorm your own solutions to change it up. Remember to keep the new habit accessible in 20 seconds or less!